The magic of thinking big, written by David J. Schwartz, is one of the bestselling books in the niche of personal development and success achievement.

Everyone is dealing with the problems and most of them blame external factors responsible for their bad state.

But the problem is of MINDSET, the problem is of WRONG THINKING, the problem is of the VISION.

Most people give more preference to other’s opinions and underestimate their own. Blunderingly, they seek the wrong people for advice.

Most people prefer to visit their friends, relatives, who have no knowledge regarding that particular field but will surely give you some useless tips, which according to them is useful.

Example: A person decides to start his own business. He consults with his friends and relatives who don’t know the “B” of Business, and they advised him to drop the idea by giving some reasons:

1. You can’t do it, you don’t know how business works.
2. It needs huge capital investment.
3. Business is risky, you can lose your money.
4. No one in your family has ever done business.
5. Get yourself a Job.

Upon listening to their negative comments, the man drops his idea and never look back to it again.

The same thing that happens with most of us, we came across many people who give many reasons why we shouldn’t do particular work.

Infographic – the magic of thinking big

1. Believe you can succeed and you will

The first chapter and our first lesson from “THE MAGIC OF THINKING BIG”. The statement is true YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH YOUR GOALS IF YOU HAVE A STRONG BELIEF.

In this chapter, the author has shared a story that will show what a strong belief can do. It’s a real story of a woman who decides to get into the business of mobile home.

The young lady had less than $3000 left in her savings and the capital investment was many times that.

People around here used to say, “It’s very competitive,” others say, “What practical experience you have in selling mobile homes?”

But the lady had belief in herself and her ability to succeed. She quickly admitted that she lacked capital, she had no experience, and the market is competitive.

 But she said, “All evidence I can gather shows that the mobile industry is going to expand. On top of that, I’ve studied my competition. I know that I can do a better job than anyone else in the town”

Her strong belief to succeed in the business won her the confidence of two investors. And she did the impossible.

She got a manufacturer to advance her a limited inventory with no money down.

And that year she sold around $1,000,000 worth of trailers.

Next year she says, “I expect to gross over $2,000,000”

The thing to notice: She first admitted that she lacks many things but she took everything positive and her belief became stronger. It was her strong belief that led her to do the impossible task.

MORAL OF THE STORY

1. Set goals in mind then wrote down in your journal.
2. Believe that you can achieve your goals.
3. Use affirmations to make your belief stronger.
4. Stay away from those who discourage you, say no to negativity.
5. Eventually, you’ll succeed.

Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution.

David J. Schwartz

2. Excusitis, the failure disease

What differentiate successful people from unsuccessful ones?

Successful people don’t make excuses.

The author says, “I have never met nor heard of a highly successful business executive, military officer, salesman, professional person, or leader in any field who could not have found one or more excuses to hide behind.”

THE FOUR COMMON EXCUSES PEOPLE GIVE

Health excuse

This is the most common excuse people give in order to delay their work. Most of them say, “My health is not good” or “I’m not feeling better right” even if they had no problem at all.

“What you think you become,” an old saying and definitely, such a negative attitude can turn a healthy person unhealthy.

A disease can’t harm your body as much as your own negative thoughts can.

There are many real-life examples of people who have defeated one of the dangerous diseases so-called Cancer, with a positive attitude. (You can search on the internet)

How to cure your health excusitis?

1. Refuse to talk about your health.
2. Refuse to worry about your health.
3. Be grateful that your health is good.
4. Remind yourself often, “It’s better to wear out than to rust out.”

Intelligence excuse

“I lack knowledge” or “I lack brain” – those who don’t give health excuses often give intelligence excuses.

According to the author, it’s so common that around 95% of the population has it in varying degrees.

The basic error we make with respect to intelligence:

1. We underestimate our brainpower.
2. We overestimate others’ brainpower.

Because of these errors people never challenge themselves and sell short. They fail to achieve big goals in life; in fact, most of them never set meaningful goals.

How to cure your intelligence excusitis?

1. The first thing: never underestimate your intelligence and never overestimate others’ intelligence.
2. Remind yourself several times daily: My attitudes are more important than my intelligence”
3. Stick to it: The ability to think is of greater value than the ability to memorize facts.

Age excuse

“I’m too young it’s not for me” or “I’m too old now, I can’t do that.” Success never enquires about your age and of course, you’re never too young or too old to start something.

The following three ways will help you cure the age excusitis:

1. Look at your age positively. Say, “I young” rather “I’m already old”
2. Compute how productive time you have. The author says a person age thirty has 80% of his productive life ahead of him.
3. Stop thinking, “I should have started years ago.” Invest future time in doing what you really want to do.

Luck excuse

“I’m unlucky, I attract bad luck” or “Why does everything happen with me? I think I’m unlucky”

What a wise person says EVERYTHING HAPPEN FOR A REASON.

The good and the bad whatever happen with you are the results of your work, there’s no role of your luck.

Having a negative attitude about your luck will surely defeat you. It also stops you from taking the necessary actions needed to achieve your goals.

How to cure luck excusitis?

1. The law of cause and effect: Take a minute to look at what makes someone lucky and you’ll find that it’s planning, strategy, and preparation that produce great results.
2. Don’t just think about being successful. You’re not going to become one simply through your luck. You need to put effort to achieve your goals. Focus on developing your self-worth.

3. Focus on building confidence and destroy fear

Let dive into the table that shows different types of fear and ways to overcome them suggested by the Author in the magic of thinking big.

TYPES OF FEAR	ACTIONS
Feeling embarrassed because of personal appearance.	Improve it. Go to the saloon. Shine your shoes. Get your clothes cleaned and pressed. In short, practice better grooming.
Fear of losing an important customer.	Work double hard to give better service and improve anything that caused your customer to lose confidence in you.
Fear of things totally beyond your control.	Turn your attention to helping to relieve the fear of others.
Fear of failing an examination	Convert your worry into study.
Fear of being physically hurt that’s beyond your control	Divert your attention to something very different. Ex: you can pull weeds in your yard.
Fear of what people will say	Make sure what you plan to do it right. Then do it. No one is ever does anything worthwhile for which he is not criticized.
Investment fear	Take decision by analyzing all the factors.
Fear of  people	Put them in a proper perspective. Remember that the other person is also a human being.

According to the author, the best way to cure your fear is to take action. It’s a two-step process:

1. Determine what exactly makes you afraid.
2. Then take action to cure it.

Taking appropriate action is the only cure to all the above-mentioned fear.

Coming to self-confidence.

The author says that our brain is much like a bank account in which we deposit money i.e. thoughts daily.

These thoughts then grow and become our memory. Therefore, whenever you fall into problems, you ask your mind, “Hey, what I know about this problem?”

And your mind gives you the relevant answer using the previously deposited thoughts. In short, your mind uses the thoughts you deposits every day.

Follow the below steps to build self-confidence

1. Deposit only positive thoughts
2. Withdraw only positive thoughts

Some other ways to build confidence are as follows:

1. Be a front seater: Try to sit at the front seat wherever you go.
2. Walk 25% faster than the rest of the people
3. Make eye contact while talking
4. Practice speaking up
5. Have a big smile on your face

4. Develop big thinking in you

How to think big? The most important question of this book.

Your thoughts affect your actions that decide your destiny. In order to be safe from critical situations in life, it’s necessary that think big. The author suggests 4 ways to think big in life.

1. Use positive, cheerful words to describe how you feel. For instance, if someone asks, “How you feel today?” reply “I’m feeling good” or “I’m feeling wonderful” In short, use only positive words to describe how you feel at every possible opportunity.
2. Use positive, cheerful, and big words to compliment the absent third party person. For instance, if one of your colleagues is absent, compliment him like “He is a nice guy” or “he is hard-working” Never use deprecating words because if they get to know about it your relationship with them may fall in danger.
3. Use positive words to encourage others for their appearance, hard work, their achievements, or anything.
4. Use positive words to outline plans to others. For instance, when people heard, “We have got a serious problem” people imagine difficult situations. However, when you say words like “We have got to face the problem” people filled with positive energy.

In short, the best way to think big is to think only positive. Your mind programmed in such a way that it gives what you ask for.

For instance, if you ask, “Why am I not able to do it?” your mind would say, “Because you have failed before,” “You’re not capable enough”, “You’re weak”, “and you lack knowledge” and so on.

Instead, if you ask, “Why I am able to do that?” Mr. Mind  will say, “Do you remember you have succeeded in that competition”, “You have made it  in the first  go last time”, “You possess a great potential”, “You think positive”, “You’re capable enough to do it”, “You have already succeeded at beginner level”, “You’re making progress every day”

This example has shown how our thoughts affect our mind that ultimately affects our actions. Thus, always think positive and ask positive.

There are several more ways to think big mentioned in the book. Check out the book

5. How to think and dream creatively

The author has suggested some awesome ways through which you can think creatively.

1. Believe you can do it. When you believe that something can be done, your mind finds solutions. Eliminate the words “Won’t,” “Don’t”, “can’t do it” and similar.
2. Don’t follow the old tradition blindly, be open to new ideas. Try new approaches and be progressive in life.
3. Ask one question every day, “How can I become better?” There’s no limit to self-development and improvement.
4. Ask yourself, “How can I do more?” The author says that capacity is a state of mind. Asking such questions puts your mind to find intelligent shortcuts.
5. Be good at asking and listening, because you can make better decisions. Big people monopolize listening, but small people monopolize talking.
6. Connect with people who can help you think of new ideas, new ways of doing work.

The magic of Thinking Big

There are more lessons to learn from this book. Here’s the list of lessons:

1. You are what you think you are
2. Manage your environment: go, first class
3. Make your attitude your allies
4. Think right towards people
5. Get the action habit
6. How to turn defeat  into victory
7. Use goals to help you grow
8. How to think like a leader

This book is worth reading, I have enjoyed this eBook. You can check below.

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